Health Case - Overdosing on Nitrous Oxide
We are so quick to try out everything and it is even worse when it has to do with doing drugs. I have seen videos where Tictokers inhale different things that they are not suppose to inhale. This is not singular to tictokers alone, I see young people on different platforms trying out these stuffs which and an example of these things they inhale is Whipped cream propellant. Think of what will happen when a person inhale 1 kilogram of whipped cream propellant everyday. I will be using a scenario to explain what will happen to the health of a person who continues with this habit for a long time.
A person decides to take 1 kilogram of Whipped Cream propellant which is Nitrous oxide or laughing gas everyday for recreational purposes for a long time of up to a year. When a person start to do this, they usually enjoy themselves, in fact some people also put it in balloons. Wait, Laughing gas has its usage medically like when at the dental clinic. For whip cream, people can use flavored gas so people usually prefer this.
When this content of the cans are consumed, they will usually experience dark vision, and a change in their voice pitch. They lose control of their body and since it has the name laughing gas, they begin to laugh at their action as they lay down on the ground. With addiction, people begin to take it every day and nitrous oxide has a way of making people feel hilarious, they continue to use it everyday taking it immediately they get out of bed, when they are just sitting doing nothing, and before bed time.
With an increased addiction, comes increased numbers of cans that will be consumed. A person who takes lots of can within a shirt time can begin to experience panic attack, followed by the inability to remember anything from location to time. If these addiction increases to a point where it is the only thing they do all day, then they can find themselves on the hospital bed as a result of hitting their head on something, or inability to move their legs and so on.
People who suffer from this can have disorientation having difficulty knowing where they are if they hit they hit their heads on something as it could lead to brain injury and this can be as a result of brain bleed as a result of the trauma from the hit and this can lead to swelling which can begin to crush against the skull and this could lead to a permanent damage. But there are cases where this aren't so and the intakes can be the cause.
People who continuously inhale nitrous oxide can suffer from lack of impulse, and cognitive impairment leading to confusion. Red Blood cells can become large compared to normal which means they cannot hold on to oxygen. Which means that it could lead to brain, spinal cord, and blood problems. Nitrous oxide misuse can lead to nutrition deficiency thereby making the red blood cell immature and so produce the blood that way.
Nitrous oxide dissolves over 30 times than nitrogen into the blood but it leaks back to the body becoming gas in places like the gut, the brain, and other parts of the body. Nitrous oxide abuse can also cause cobalt and vitamin B12 to be oxidized causing the blood not to be able to hold on oxygen.
The excess use off Nitrous oxide can lead to myelin damage leading to spinal cord damage causing inability to respond to reflex. The white matter in the brain can also be damaged as it wouldn't produce the right fats and when this happens, it can lead to the degeneration of the brain.
The misuse of this gas is on the rise, and it is becoming an epidermic. Personally I would have suggested that it is taken away from shelves but then this will be difficult because there are legit culinary use of it, as well as medical use as an Anesthetic so it will be quite difficult to place a restriction on it. Before I go, let me quickly say that for men who abuse this gas, it has been said to have testicular reaction including shrinking, and reducing sperm count.
Post Reference
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9702802/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7167281/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6633399/
https://www.openanesthesia.org/keywords/nitrous-oxide/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1082731/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25297001/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10433604/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29367261/
https://accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx
Image Reference
Image 1 || Wikimedia Commons || NOS Cracker With Balloon And Charger
Image 2 || Flickr ||Laughing gas anesthesia technical picture
Image 3 || Flickr || Dumped on the pavement
